Happy Death Day & 5 Survival Rules in Horror

“Happy Death Day” is just another reminder of why you should be try to be a good person and not go down that dark tunnel.

The main character, Tree — which of all names to pick for a character you’re going to pick Tree — is a selfish sorority college student.

After waking up in a random guy’s dorm room, she’s rude to the guy she thinks she spent the night with and storms out. When people try to talk or wave hi to her, she ignores them. It’s her birthday, and she keeps blowing off her father’s phone calls. Her roommate gives her a birthday cupcake and Tree throws it in the trash right in front of her. And to top it all off, she’s having an affair with her professor.

As I was watching I thought to myself, “You’re an awful person. You deserve to die.” That sounds harsh, but Karma will get you in the end, and yes, she kind of had it coming.

So Tree dies. [1]

After her death, she immediately wakes up in the random guy’s dorm room again feeling confused and shaken. The day repeats itself. She keeps having deja-vu.

After a couple of deaths, she realizes this is not a dream anymore and doesn’t understand why her birthday keeps repeating. Tree confides in Carter, the guy in the dorm room. He hears her out and helps her figure out possible killers.

She spends the rest of the movie figuring out clues and every night continues to die. Each day she comes back, but she’s getting weaker and weaker. She doesn’t have a lot of time left to find her killer.

The movie overall was okay. It was cheesy and had a lot of puns in it that I didn’t think were all that funny but everyone in the audience thought were hilarious. Still, it was funnier than I thought it would be. The trailer made it seem to be a serious thriller.

If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the whole movie.

The concept is really interesting; it’s just like Groundhog Day but only with murder. It had good suspenseful parts in the movie that really made me jump and sink in my seat.

I gave it a 6/10 rating, and then found out others felt the same way. IMD gave it a 6.6/10, and Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 65 percent rating as well.

If Tree was smart, and a nice person, she wouldn’t have died in the first place. Which is why I’m going to give five rules on how to survive in horror movies and in life.

DON’T BE SO CURIOUS. If Tree just let things be, she’d be alive. Don’t open that door, walk through anywhere dark, or go to the basement or attic. If you hear something, don’t pursue the sound! And if you see a trail of blood, don’t follow it because you’ll have a trail of your own. You know you’re going to die, I know you’re going to die, it’s a lose-lose from here, girl.

HAVE A BUDDY SYSTEM. Tree was always alone, making it easier for her killer so that no one could help her. Two people could take down a person with a weapon. Just never be alone, especially as a young female on a dark campus. It is never safe.

DON’T TAUNT YOUR ATTACKER. In the tunnel, she was making fun of the man in the freaky-looking baby mask. Which is another thing, why is the mascot a baby? She tells him to get lost and that she isn’t afraid of him. WRONG. You’re just going to make them mad and they’ll kill you with that much more anger.

TAKE OFF YOUR HEELS. The first time she died, she tried to run away in heels. Heels are already hard enough to walk in, what makes you think you are going to out sprint your attacker? At this point, your body is in that “flight” response which means you better take off, PROPERLY. Come on people.

DON’T HAVE SEX WHEN THERE IS A KILLER ON THE LOOSE. Every, and I mean every, scary movie has sex in it. And the people who are having it, usually die. But they tend to do it in the places where it’s like they want to be killed. Like in a cabin in the woods, in a car, by the lake, a bathroom, or somewhere dumb. Don’t have sex.

Be a good person, it pays in the end. And most importantly, be smart and be safe.